The Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”) mandates detectable warnings, such as tactile surfaces, in prescribed locations to assist blind or visually impaired pedestrians. Typical locations for detectable warnings are traffic crossings, stairways, and the edge of rail platforms.
Commonly, tactile surfaces are formed as thin mats having a series of raised truncated domes and a plurality of smaller pointed nubs arrayed on the top surface. The tactile surface is placed over wet concrete and the underside of the tactile surface bonds to the concrete underlayer. If the top surface of the tactile surface becomes worn or damaged, the entire tactile surface, and the concrete attached thereto, must be removed. The tactile surface must then be replaced in the same manner as it was originally installed. Specifically, concrete must be poured and a new tile must be bonded to that concrete. This process is both time consuming and expensive.
A second type of tactile surface allows for the insertion and removal of individual truncated domes. A mat having an array of pre-cut circular holes is bonded to a concrete underlayer as described above. Cylindrical holes are formed in the concrete underlayer to correspond with the holes in the mat. Cylindrical inserts are vertically bonded into the cylindrical holes, and the end of the cylindrical insert that protrudes from the mat comprises the truncated dome. If the truncated dome becomes damaged, the insert can be removed and replaced. However, if the mat becomes worn or damaged, the mat and the concrete bonded thereto must be removed. Again, this process is expensive and time consuming.
The tactile sidewalk tile of the present disclosure overcomes these and other shortcomings of conventional tactile surfaces. As compared to conventional tactile surfaces, the tactile sidewalk tile of the present disclosure is inexpensive to produce and simple to install and replace.